Finland: Adjusting to an ageing population

Finland is the forerunner in adjusting to the ageing of population. Population ageing will have repercussions on the labour market, economic growth potential and public finances. The main features of the Finnish strategy to counter the effects of population ageing have been extensive and long-lasting prefunding of future pension expenditures, actions to postpone retirement and to increase the productivity and efficiency of ageing related services, which in the Finnish case are primarily provided by the local governments. Additional measures are still needed to achieve further increases in the length of working lives and enhance productivity of public services.